The drawing plotter described herein is related to that described in Spanish Pat. No. 550,267 entitled "Automatic Plastic Drawing and Ruling Machine". The operating principles of drawing plotters, in their two basic versions, drum and flat types, and including some mixed models, are well-known. Also well-known are the advantages and disadvantages of one type of technology compared with the other. See, e.g. French Patent Application No. 7516659 in the name of Uri Leder of Computer Products Inc., a California corporation.
Nevertheless, the application of this technology to the clothing industry means that existing plotters are not usable, for a variety of reasons, such as the high costs of large plotters developed for the aeronautical and automobile industries, or those used to mark with high flatness precision on the table, or those of the purely dimensional type for use in technical offices.
The drum plotter which is the subject of Spanish Pat. No. 509082 was designed in particular for this industry which makes it possible to handle rolls of paper of up to 150 m, but which has the disadvantage that it requires perforated paper.
Likewise, until now, machines for the preparation of the patterns have been proposed which are separate from those for the drawing, and which use a laser or blade as a cutting tool. This requires special support surfaces, using a vacuum as the securing element. This results in pattern production being expensive.